Understanding Camtasia Recorder
The Camtasia Recorder enables you to capture all movement on your screen, including mouse movements, menus and menu selections, pop-up windows, etc. By default, Camtasia is set to record at an automatic frame-rate. You must change this to record at 5 frames per second. This is a good rate for recording if you are putting your movies online.
The Camtasia Recorder consists of a menu bar, a tool bar, a video area and a status bar.
Menu Bar
Capture: From the Capture menu, you can begin a recording; pause, stop, and delete a recording, define input and output options, and launch the New Wizard tool.
The Input option enables you to define the area of your desktop to be recorded. You can record an entire Screen, record a selected Window, or record a user-defined or pre-defined Region.
The output option you choose tells you what to do with the video content you are capturing. You may choose either File or Live. With File, the recording will be stored in an industry standard .AVI video file. With Live the captured video will be made available to any live encoding process you have available on your computer.
View: The view menu options enable you to choose the look and feel of your recorder screen. Effects: Enables you to choose from a variety of special effects while recording.
Tools: Enables you to select another component of Camtasia Studio.
Help: Enables you to access Camtasia online help, and other help options.
Using the Camtasia ToolBar
Several of the most-used options have been added to the main toolbar on the Recorder screen. Placing these much-used tools on the toolbar allows you to access them more quickly.
Next to several of the tool buttons you will see a small, black down-arrow. Clicking on the down-arrow will reveal a dropdown menu of options related to that tool.
Choosing a Toolbar
There are several toolbars available within Recorder. By default, only the main toolbar is displayed when Recorder is first opened. You can display any or all of the other toolbars by enabling them from the View menu.
To enable a toolbar to view, choose the desired toolbar from the View dropdown menu. Once enabled, a small bullet will be placed next to the toolbar name. The different toolbars are highlighted in the graphic below.
Record: Begins the recording sequence
Pause: Pauses the recording
Stop: Stops screen video capture
Delete: Deletes the recording
Toggle: Changes the view of the recorder screen (Standard view, Compact View, Minimal View)
Options: Opens the Options dialog
Launch other tools: Opens the drop-down menu, enabling user to choose another component of Camtasia
Help: Opens the Recorder online Help
Using the Annotation toolbar
The Annotation toolbar is used primarily for adding annotations to the video while you record. Annotations include a timestamp, watermark, captions, highlights and drawings. Annotations are typically added to your video after it has been recorded. We will practice adding annotations to our project later.
Using the Audio Toolbar
The audio toolbar options enable you to add sound to your project. You can record audio using a microphone, and add cursor and keyboard click sounds. Audio is typically added to a project after it has been recorded. We will add audio to our video projects at a later point.
Using the Cursor Toolbar
The cursor toolbar options enable you to add different effects to your cursor as your video is being recorded. You may choose to hide your cursor, show your cursor, or highlight your cursor and/or your cursor clicks. We will explore these options at a later point.
The Zoom ‘n Pan toolbar enables you to add Zoom ‘n Pan options to your video as it is being recorded. You may choose zoom to magnify a particular area of your video, or choose pan to focus on a particular smaller area of your video where action is taking place. The Zoom ‘n Pan options are typically added to an already existing video. We will explore these options later.
Using ScreenPad
The ScreenPad tool enables you to add various annotations while you record your video. The ScreenPad library stores pre-made and user-made shapes and text boxes that you can drag and drop into your video. You can add as may ScreenPad annotations to your video as you like, and you can save an arrangement of annotations as a “layout”. For example, you can create annotations that include your company name, logo, copyright information and the date, and save this layout to use in another project. That way, your company’s projects will have a consistent look and feel.
Using Recording Effects
From the Camtasia Recorder toolbar, select Effects -- Options. The Effects Options dialog opens. From here you can add annotations, sounds, and watermarks to your video. You can also play with zoom settings and cursor effects.
Annotation Tab
The annotation tab enables you to select various annotations for your recording. You can choose System Stamps (such as Time/Date, Computer Name, User Name, etc.), and you can choose how long to display these system stamps. If you include more than one system stamp, you may arrange the order that they appear in. By clicking the Options button, you can play with the styles and formatting of your system stamps, by changing the font color, background and more. You can also choose to add a caption and/or a highlight to your system stamp.
Sound Tab
From the sound tab, you can insert different sounds for your mouse clicks. This includes the sound your mouse makes when you click down, as well as when you release the click. You can browse to look for the sound you would like to include, and you can preview the sound by clicking the browse button next to the open folder icon. You can follow the same procedure for choosing a sound for keyboard clicks. You may also set the volume for your mouse and keyboard sounds in the sounds tab.
Cursor Tab
Under the cursor tab, you may choose the appearance of your cursor. You may use your actual cursor, or click Cursor Setup to choose a custom cursor. You may choose to highlight your cursor, and select the shape and color of the highlight. You can also set the size of the highlighter. You may also choose to highlight both the right and left click actions of your mouse. You can choose the shape, color and size of these highlighters as well.
Screen Draw Tab
The Screen Draw Feature enables you to draw on your desktop as you record your video. You may choose what tool with which to draw (the default is Pen), and you may choose the color and width of your drawing. You may also choose to disable your keyboard and cursor effects when you are drawing.
Watermark Tab
The watermark tab enables you to put watermarks such as your company logo, ads, banners and more into your recording. Camtasia supports image formats such as BMP, GIF, and JPEG. In the watermark tab, you can browse for a specific image you would like to use in your recording. You can change the color and size of your watermark image as well as add effects such as shadow and depth. The watermark preview window enables you to preview any changes you make to your watermark.
Zoom Tab
The Zoom tab enables you to set up zooming and panning options for your recording. You can set the speed of your zoom and the level of your zoom.
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